Mastercard Service Strategies And Competitive Advantage Among Selected Banks In Nakuru County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The MasterCard as a card banking option faces unique challenges in the Banking industry that creates the need for effective marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage. The study therefore purposed to assess marketing strategies adopted in creating competitive advantage in the Banking industry; a case of MasterCard. The study sought to establish the role of master card Product Characteristics as a marketing strategy in gaining competitive advantage in the Banking industry; examine the impact of the master card Banking infrastructure distribution as a marketing strategy in gaining competitive advantage in the Banking industry; examine the effect of the promotion of master card services as a marketing strategy in gaining competitive advantage in the Banking industry and establish the effect of the pricing of the master card Services as a marketing strategy in gaining competitive advantage in the Banking industry.The researcher adopted a descriptive research design. The study target market was 80 customers issuing master card services. Data was collected by use of questionnaires containing structured questions. The researcher sought the guidance of university supervisors in ensuring content validity of the research instruments. A pilot test was conducted in one other area with similar characteristics to the study sample. The Cronbach Alpha reliability test was performed on the piloted instruments to determine their Alpha strengths. A value of 0.891 which was greater than the threshold of 0.7 was achieved. The study collected quantitative data. Responses in the Likert scale were assigned numerical values to make quantitative analysis possible. The responses formed the themes for analysis in line with the study variables and objectives. SPSS (Statistic Package for Social Sciences) computer software version 22 was used for data entry and analysis. The results of the data analysed was presented in form of tables. The study found that there was a significant statistical effect of banking infrastructure distribution on competitive advantage of MasterCard services. The study also found that there was a significant statistical effect of promotion of MasterCard Services on competitive advantage of MasterCard services. Finally, the study found that there was a significant statistical effect of pricing of MasterCard Services on competitive advantage of MasterCard services. Based on the findings, the study recommends that: MasterCard services should initiate marketing services as it influences the competitive advantage of MasterCard services, more promotional activities be carried out to sensitive customers on the availability and advantages of using MasterCard there by increasing the competitive advantage, and the pricing of MasterCard Services should be adjusted to encourage more customers to use and thus gain a competitive advantage through low cost